European car sales are up for the second time this year as the UK continues to grow, although some think this may not be good news for future RVs. Meanwhile Opel’s decision to leave Australia comes just as Australian sales grow yet again BMW get caught by a recall just as GM is reportedly trying to put the cost of recalls on its suppliers. The falling 1-5 year old used car parc across LHD Europe is unlikely to reverse until 2017.

As the ACEA take their summer break we can still report that passenger car sales in Western Europe rose 4% in July, with the help of one extra days selling, making it the second time this year car sales have increased. The UK posted its 17th consecutive rise in July, up 12.7%, as it was joined by Germany, France and Spain who also saw gains last month whilst Italy at least had the consolation of posting its lowest fall since August 2011.

Whilst our view of full year car sales volume for the EU27 + EFTA 3 is closer to 11.8 million there are now signs that we are at last coming towards the end of constant falls. But the industry is still undecided as PSA, Ford and Daimler believe Europe may be bottoming out whilst Renault Nissan CEO, Carlos Ghosn, believes 2014 and 2015 may be flat at best but “More realistically we may see another decrease”.

Whatever happens we are not going to see the heady days of 2007 and over 16 million car sales even on the distant horizon which brings us back to that now old question of how much longer before Europe finally cuts production to match demand.